Kofi Kingston Defeats Dolph Ziggler Inside a Steel Cage, Retains WWE Championship

Kofi Kingston kept his hands on WWE's top prize on Sunday night, defeating Dolph Ziggler in a [...]

By Ryan Droste

Kofi Kingston kept his hands on WWE's top prize on Sunday night, defeating Dolph Ziggler in a Steel Cage match at Stomping Grounds by escaping the cage.

Kingston and Ziggler faced off two weeks ago at WWE Super ShowDown, but the match at Stomping Grounds raised the stakes by adding the steel cage to the equation.

Early on, the crowd was surprisingly not very into the match. Kingston tried to wake them up with a springboard crossbody off the top ropes several minutes into the match.

Kingston delivered a SOS for a near fall, but Ziggler was able to escape. Ziggler then started to work over Kingston's right leg as the announcers sold the fact that this would make it harder for Kofi to hit the Trouble In Paradise. As he was locked in a knee bar, Kofi reached the ropes but the referee told him there's no rope breaks in a cage match.

Eventually, Kofi broke the hold but Ziggler instantly superkicked him. The impact from the kick nearly sent Kofi barreling out of the cage door to the floor below, which would have won him the match. Instead, Ziggler cranked down on another knee bar as Kofi tried to fight it off. He got out and tried to hit the Trouble In Paradise, but Dolph caught it and locked in the knee bar again. It should be noted that the crowd was dead for these extended submissions.

Dolph tried to escape the cage, but Kofi locked in a headlock to prevent him from getting out. Moments later, Dolph dove for the cage door, but Kofi grabbed his tights and dragged him back into the ring.

This all culminated with Ziggler looking like he had a break to finally crawl out of the ring with Kofi down, but Kofi ran over and dove through the middle ropes and all the way to the outside to win the match.

With Kingston now having defeated Ziggler twice in two weeks, it would seem the feud with Dolph has come to a close. The question will be whether Ziggler sticks around television now or goes on another hiatus from television.

The feud between Kingston and Ziggler first kicked off on the May 21 episode of SmackDown Live when Ziggler appeared on WWE television for the first time in four months and jumped Kingston from behind. He then explained in an emotional promo that he was proud of all that Kingston had accomplished in recent months, but argued over and over that those opportunities should have gone to him instead. A match between the two was then booked for Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.

During that match Ziggler attacked Xavier Woods, who was at ringside to cheer on Kingston. The New Day member later jumped on the apron to distract Ziggler, allowing Kingston to hit Trouble in Paradise and win the match. Ziggler demanded a rematch afterwards, saying he wanted it in a steel cage so there could be no outside interference.

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